Fr. Rob Johansen preached on the Pope’s statement last Sunday and posts his homily. and one parishioner’s response.
Iraq the Model has two posts on the Pope:
Anyway, it looks like the reaction of Muslims were not as violent or as bloody as the leaders wished them to be and that’s why they’re now provoking and yelling at the "sleeping" masses and pushing them to show more fury.
They want to add another big scene to the countless previous ones—angry mobs burning flags and pledging to destroy the "infidels".
Actually their latest calls for MORE ANGER are becoming pretty much like begging.
Iran thinks the Muslim people fell short of doing their duty and Qaradawi calls Muslims to have a "day of fury".All these are theatrical acts directed by governments and corrupt clerics seeking controlled anger among the mobs to use in intimidating the west and discouraging it from applying more pressure on, or calling for changing, these tyrannical regimes.
Such calls are taking the headlines in the governments-controlled media in the Arab countries, and the governments, whether religious or secular, are promoting this provocation of anger.
Meanwhile, voices of reason are being pushed to the rear to appear in a short subtitle or in a tiny corner in the 10th page, or even not mentioned at all.
What the rulers want is the anger that the masses, in the eyes of the rulers, did not express enough of.What has to be done now from the governments’ perspective is to lash those lazy masses with the whips of the media and religion to do more angry protests and show more fist-shaking on TV.
For a while let the people forget about poverty, hunger, terrorism, illiteracy and other problems of the region… And let’s redirect the world’s attention from "insignificant" issues like Darfur, nuclear reactors, Hizbollah’s defiance or Syrian and Iranian meddling with Iraq’s or Lebanon’s affairs.
What matters now is anger and only anger.
He also remembers what happened twenty years ago when John Paul II was the subject, not of words, but of a bullet from a Turk:
One friend reminded me of the assassination attempt that targeted the former pope two decades ago wondering what the reaction of the pope was…as we all know he eventually visited the assailant and pardoned him.
No mosques were blown up and no speech of a clash of civilizations was made.
So why don’t we admit that the "other" is better than us at responding rationally when criticized? Why don’t we learn from others?
Super-Mega-Blockbuster Christianity Today Weblog edition, with hundreds of stories, many of them on Benedict – but what makes this roundup particularly useful is that Ted’s got the stories divided into categories – stories related to Muslim reaction, to the Turkey visit, to the question of motive and intention, etc. One for the bookmarks.
New blog – "Revive in Five" – the purpose:
Revive in 5 is an intercessary prayer movement to help bring about revival in the Catholic Church. "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble at your presence." Is. 64:1
And so Pope Benedict has decided it is time to act, no matter that it may hurt the sensibilities of Islamic believers or Western elites ever alert to the delicacies of language. In this Benedict deserves the world’s political support. The Middle East is being purged of a historically enriching diversity that will surely kill its ability to thrive. What will remain is a homogenous, self-proclaimed threat to the rest of the world. As Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom argues, the pathologies and methods directed against unprotected minorities will be used next against other Muslims and governments. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the maltreatment of these local Christians is rightly seen as a proxy for the world.
The world’s standard political institutions have proved unable to address this problem. The U.N. is compromised and hapless. The U.S. is distrusted, Europe is supine, China is cynical. There would be no better venue for seeking a way out than the Vatican.
The Vatican doesn’t want oil. Hegemony is long gone from its vocabulary. The Vatican’s only brief is a modus vivendi, a global reality Islam must eventually acknowledge. The governments of Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia should open the dialogue Benedict XVI is seeking. In March, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Benedict at the Vatican. He would be the obvious choice to take the lead. More than these Arab governments realize, their future could use the support of the pope’s famous divisions.
Ann Rogers reports on a speech from the Vatican envoy to the UN:
Those who flee deadly poverty in their home nations should be viewed through the same lens as those who fled dictatorial regimes during the Cold War, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations told a symposium on faith and immigration at Duquesne University yesterday.
"Today, millions risk their lives to escape from the dictatorship of poverty. Fences will not stop them," said Archbishop Celestino Migliore. That oblique reference to a plan for a border fence was his only direct comment on specific U.S. policy.
"For their good and for the prosperity of all of us, developed countries as well as least-developed countries must implement effective policies, so that the citizens of the least-developed countries will choose freely to remain at home."
Archbishop Migliore spoke to an audience of 250 at a university founded by immigrant German priests to serve other poor immigrants from many nations.
Madonna, in a statement made as the "Confessions Tour" ended in Japan last night, said: "There seems to be many misinterpretations about my appearance on the cross and I wanted to explain it myself once and for all.
"It is no different than a person wearing a cross or ‘taking up the cross’ as it says in the Bible. My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole."
She added, "I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing."
The 48-year-old entertainer has made the crucifixion scene, in which she performs while suspended on a giant cross wearing a crown of thorns, the centrepiece of her show. Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox church leaders say it is blasphemous.
In her statement, Madonna said the specific intent of the scene was "to bring attention to the millions of children in Africa who are dying every day (or) are living without care, without medicine and without hope. I am asking people to open their hearts and minds to get involved in whatever way they can."
I guess you could call it blasphemous. It always struck me as a simple case of maniacal egotism, with a touch of, well…martyr complex thrown in.
Most Americans want greater restrictions on abortion and oppose same-sex marriage. But they plan to vote for Democrats on election day, according to a survey released today by a leading liberal political group: People for the American Way.
The American Values Survey found that 59 percent of U.S. residents oppose current abortion laws. Twelve percent of Americans said abortion should be illegal in all cases. Another 47 percent said that abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
Only 28 percent favored gay marriage. Another 32 percent support allowing gays to form "civil unions." Thirty-six percent oppose any legal recognition of gay couples.
The report shows Democrats with a 16-point lead over Republicans in congressional races. Democrats lead among secular voters, but also among people of faith, according to survey author Robert Jones.
That represents a substantial shift from 2004, he said. Republicans only lead among voters who attend church more than once per week, the poll found.
Read Previous Post